Thursday, June 25, 2009

Long live the great Senator David Norris for yet again injecting colour, humour and above all, humanity into what can be an incredibly dull Seanad.

During a recent Seanad motion on human trafficking and prostitution, Senator Norris was his usual colourful, vociferous self as he regaled fellow Senators about his close encounter with a brothel.

“For a number of years, there was a brothel in the basement next to me in North Great George’s Street,” he told an eager Seanad.

“On one occasion when the woman was being beaten up, I was obliged to intervene and I protected her. I did not avail of her services but it was quite a moving experience because I encountered her as a human being and realised what was going on in that place.”

“On a Saturday evening, I often swept my step and I saw many people coming from there, some of whom were quite familiar names in Irish public life.”

“While they got a hell of a shock on seeing me, I never have disclosed a single name and never would.”

“These were professional people, some of whom were in religious professions,” he said, whetting the curiosity of many.

And he was similarly vociferous about proposals to follow the lead of Sweden, Norway and Iceland by criminalising the purchase of sex so as to target the demand for the sex exploitation industry.

“Members who have a slightly more sophisticated view of history will remember that among other things, Sweden supplied Hitler with ball bearings during the Second World War and has a serious problem with right-wing hooliganism.”

“Simply because something happens in Sweden does not mean one should automatically gollop it down uncritically,” he said.

The Common Sense Award of the week goes to Fianna Fail’s Limerick TD Niall Collins, who has called for a referendum to be held on the thorny issue of judges salaries.

This follows the controversy that only 19 judges have so far agreed to make voluntary contributions in lieu of the pension levy.

Our Constitution states that the remuneration of a judge cannot be reduced while they are in office. So that got Niall thinking.

“This group of elite untouchables should be subjected to the regular procedures administering the pay of higher civil servants,” he said.

“In the modern day, being protected by the Constitution is simply not good enough given that many thousands of people and their families are suffering falling incomes and job losses.”

“I feel with the forthcoming Lisbon 2 referendum, we have an early opportunity to address this issue through a vote of the people. Many of the working practices of the courts and the judiciary need modernising and this is now an opportune time for that,” he said.

Green Party Deputy Ciaran Cuffe has said the Greens should walk from Government – unless there is a greater delivery of his party’s policies.

The local elections may seen like a distant memory to many but around the corridors of power of Leinster House, politicos are trying to make sense of the slaughter on June 5.

None more so than that Green Party, which has become an almost extinct breed in local Government – especially in the capital.

Deputy Cuffe has been doing a fair bit of soul searching on his blog, acknowledging that it was a ‘rough’ result for the Greens and saying how it ‘hurt’ to be hit so hard within the Pale.

“We could walk away from Government, and unless there is greater deliver of Green Party policies, particularly in areas ofresponsibility that don’t fall directly under out control, I think we should,” he said.

“People were mad as hell about the wasted opportunities of the boom years and while Fianna Fail were taking the brunt of it kick, we were also a target.”

Cuffe believes that the failure to publish the Civil Unions legislation before the Local and European elections ‘definitely costus votes’.

This year’s charity of choice is the Irish Heart Foundation and ourenergetic TDs and Senators will be hoping to top the €6,000 theyraised last year for Autism Ireland.

Ringleader-in-chief of the Oireachtas crew is none other thanmulti-All-Ireland-medal-winning Jimmy Deenihan - still one of thefittest men in Leinster House.

Jimmy has become the fitness tzar in Leinster House, organisingsoccer, GAA and hurling matches among Oireachtas members.

Joining Jimmy this year on his mountain walk will be Senator FidelmaHealy-Eames, Senator Ivana Bacik and Deputies Ciaran Cuffe, ChrisAndrews and Liz McManus.

And it won’t be an easy afternoon out for our politicians - they willbe professionally guided along a 15 km trek!

Tzar Deenihan said the money raised through this walk will be ploughedinto the Irish Heart Foundation’s CPR programme for schools.

“A walk through the Slieve Bloom mountains is relatively easy. Itwouldn’t be as hard as the MacGillycuddy Reeks. It will be anall-party exercise - there are representatives from all parties bothin the Dail and the Seanad taking part,” he said

As the sponsored trek will take place in Brian Cowen’s backyard, hehas been asked to officiate at the starting of the walk but a busyschedule on the day may prevent him from actually taking part in thewalk.

Speaking of his fellow politicians, Tzar Deenihan said their fitnesslevels are ‘reasonably good’ but he said he would like to see more ofthem using the Oireachtas gym to fine tune their fitness.

“TDs and Senators, because of their heavy schedules, find it hard tofind the time to use the gym. The gym has basic equipment but enoughfor good cardio training and weight training,” he said.

It has been a quiet week on the Corridors of Power but that hasn’tstopped some keen politics watchers from using their down time to puta smile on the face of many a gloomy Government backbencher.

Our pals over at Politics.ie have been using their time constructivelyand have come up with some very apt - and hilarious - anagrams for ourpoliticians.

Masterly Media Presence is a very appropriate anagram for PresidentMary McAleese while Mary Coughlan might no be too chuffed with hers -Laugh Cry Moan!

Taoiseach Brian Cowen translates into Beware Chaos Inaction and BertieAhern could otherwise be known as Here I Banter.

The contributors to the website have really struck gold with theiranagram skills - Jackie Healy Rae becomes A Jar Ye Each Like while theGreen’s Dan Boyle becomes Boney Lad!

Trevor Sargent may be a bit wary of his anagram - Restart Govern -while Noel Dempsey can chose between two anagrams - Speedy Lemon or MyDense Pole!!!

But the gold medal goes jointly to the two geniuses who figured outthat Financial Regulator is an anagram for Ritual Loaning Farce andthe National Asset Management Agency is an anagram for Alas, Money InA Stagnant Cement Age!!!

It is nice to see a bit of good news in the Green camp so well done toGreen councillor Malcolm Noonan on his election as Mayor of Kilkennycity.

To say the local elections were rough for the Greens would be anunderstatement. Yet with the handful of councillors who did manage toescape the guillotine, it is nice to see one reach a high office.

Politics is a game of chance. It is a game of risk. You win some andyou lose some. The Greens have reached Ground Zero in terms of supporton local and city councils but - being optimistic - the only way is upfor them.

Mayor Noonan is the first Green Mayor of Kilkenny and what a year itwill be as 2009 celebrates the 400th anniversary of the granting ofcity status by King James, no less.

Since becoming First Lady of the US, Michelle Obama has become renowned for her relationship with kids during school visits around the country.

She is warm and fuzzy and does not engage in formal handshakes – Michelle is all about hugs, pats on the back and fist-bumps.

And so onto Michael Ring – he certainly had shades of Mrs Obama’s warm and fuzzy style when a group of kids from Lankhill National School in Westport came to Leinster House on a day trip on Tuesday.

As the kids gathered outside the House for their school picture, Michael – their local TD – was treated like a mini-celebrity when he came down to greet them.

It started with handshakes and soon moved on to back-pats and hugs as all the kids wanted a piece of the colourful Mayo man.

The Ringmaster of Fine Gael was even being targeted for autographs by the kids of Lankhill.

Fine Gael are past masters of turning celebrities into politicians. Now it seems they are mastering the art of turning politicians in to celebrities – in the eyes of the great kids from Westport anyway!